Philip Bimstein is a composer and politician based in a small town in rural Utah. His work often engages with the every day lives of those in the community around him. Angels, Cats & Shackles collects three vastly different works. Cats in the Kitchen is a piece for woodwind duo (expertly performed by Michele Fiala and Heidi Pinter) and an electronic accompaniment made from samples of everyday kitchen objects. Lockdown! is a haunting and moving piece made from recorded interviews with young men confined in Washington County Youth Crisis Center in St. George, Utah.

– where many composers venture into experimental territory with intense seriousness, Bimstein is one of those composers whose music, even when it is serious, seems to be consistently tinged with signs of what John Cage called a “sunny disposition.” – Stephen Smoliar

The opening work of the three-piece Cats in the Kitchen (2007) by the Utah-based, Emmy Award-winning Bimstein (b. 1947) is fun, humorous, and at times hilarious. Even though our three terrorers basically slept through the performance, with nary a bark directed toward oboist Michele Fiala, flutist Heidi Pintner, and Bimstein’s pre-recorded electronics, I was totally taken by tracks with titles such as “O Solo Meow” and “Where’s Your Mouse, McGee?” – Jason Victor Serinus; Stereophile.com